Meredith
Feminine
Meredith is given to both — 77,787 girls and 4,257 boys since 1880. See Meredith as a boy nameSee other names given to both
Maredudd was a Welsh man's name for a thousand years. It belonged to princes of Deheubarth and Powys, it produced one of the commonest Welsh surnames, and it stayed male in Wales the entire time. America moved it across the line in the twentieth century and Britain largely did not, so the same name now reads differently on two sides of an ocean.
How old is the name Meredith?
Meredith first appears in US birth records in 1895 — 130 years ago. The typical Meredith alive today was born around 1984, making them about 41 years old. About 72,000 people named Meredith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
When was the name Meredith most popular?
Meredith peaked in 1980, reaching #140 nationally. Today it ranks #469, 329 places below that high. See the whole 1980 chart.
Meredith appears on these lists:
Where it comes from
From Maredudd to Meredith
The story of Meredith
A men's name crosses to women by a fairly reliable route: it becomes a surname, the surname gets used as a first name for boys, it sounds soft enough to be given to a girl once, and once it is common for girls it stops being given to boys entirely. Meredith is a textbook case, and the crossing happened in America between the nineteen-twenties and the nineteen-fifties. In Wales, Maredudd remains a man's name and is still given. Both facts are true at the same time, which is unusual and worth knowing.
Meaningscholars disagree
Not established
The second element is generally read as iudd, a lord, which is well attested in Welsh names. The first is not agreed: proposals include a word for great or splendor, and none is demonstrated. Great lord is the usual gloss and it is a reconstruction of half a name. Meredith is the English spelling of Maredudd, and the surname form is Meredydd or Bedward in various renderings; the given name in English use descends from the surname.
How the name formed
- Maredudd
- Meredydd
- Meredith
Related forms: Maredudd
Pronouncing Meredith
MAIR-uh-dith
MAIR-uh-dith, three syllables, stress at the front, the middle reduced. Welsh Maredudd puts the weight on the middle syllable and ends in a sound English does not have, so the two versions are audibly different names.
Nicknames for Meredith
Moderate
What the data says
146 years of official birth records
The long climb, and where it stands now
The same years in position rather than babies
- First recorded
- 1895
- Most girls named
- 19791,962 — the highest on record
- Peak rank
- #140reached in 1980
- Change vs 2022
- +17.8%656 in 2025, from 557
Rank is a position, a count is a headcount, and they move independently — a name can hold its rank while the number of babies behind it falls. Source: U.S. Social Security Administration.
Meredith in other languages
The same name elsewhere
- Maredudd in Welsh — same name
Strongest US states over the last decade: Texas, California, Ohio.
Merediths among us
people named Meredith are estimated to be alive in the US today
About 1 girl in 2,450 born in 2025 was named Meredith
Estimated from SSA birth records and published actuarial life tables. Method
Is it right for you
What happens to a name after it peaks
The Patty test
Every popular name lives one long story — a climb, a peak, a slow settling back. Meredith's later chapters haven't been written yet, so we borrowed them: Patty climbed just as high around 1959, and its whole arc is on record. Line the two peaks up, and Patty's path sketches the road Meredith is walking now.
Meredith is on its second act. Revived names age gently: the generation that wore them first is far enough away that the name feels classic rather than dated.
A scored estimate from 146 years of naming cycles — not a prophecy. Great names outlive statistics. How this is scored
Where Meredith is headed
Meredith should hold steady through 2030 — the curve is flat, and flat curves are the most predictable kind.
High confidence — fitted on official counts through 2025.
A damped-trend projection of the official birth data — a sketch of momentum, not a promise. Every name's forecast, ranked.
Meredith beside its neighbors
The names ranked closest to Meredith in 2025, in babies rather than position — the bars are to scale.
US girls given each name in 2025.
The trade-off
- It has a documented thousand-year history as a Welsh princely name.
- Merry, Mer and Edie are three short forms in three quite different registers.
- Three syllables with a firm front stress, which carries a short surname well.
- It works for either child, and in Wales still does.
- In Wales this is a man's name, and Welsh speakers will read it that way whatever an American form says.
- The meaning is only half recoverable, so any gloss offered is a reconstruction.
- It is strongly associated with the middle of the last century in America.
- The Welsh spelling and the English one look and sound quite different, which complicates explaining the origin.
Nobody names a baby alone.
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What they receive
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Meredith
Feminine · #469 in the U.S.
Frequently asked
- How many Merediths are there in the world?
- No country counts the world's names, so there is no worldwide figure — anyone quoting one is estimating. About 72,000 people named Meredith are estimated to be alive in the US today.
- How popular is the name Meredith in 2025?
- Meredith ranks #469 among US girl names in 2025, with 656 babies given the name.
- How rare is the name Meredith?
- About 1 in every 2,450 US girls born in 2025 was named Meredith — 656 in all.
- Will my child share the name Meredith with classmates?
- Meredith will almost certainly be the only one in school.
Ranked beside Meredith
Names sitting at a similar level of popularity right now.
Maren#470 · Jaylani#470 · Fiona#470 · Daniella#468 · Monroe#467 · Gracelyn#466 · Michelle#465 · Felicity#473
Looking for what else is popular rather than what resembles Meredith? See the current top 100.
Choosing between Meredith and another name?
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US figures from the Social Security Administration. 1880–2025. Data & methodology
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